2-889-617 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Snow-Sweepers - drawn by Foster, 1850. Illustration to a story by Thomas Miller. '"Clear your snow away, marm? do it for a penny," is another cry which assails our ears; and looking out of the window, we see two little urchins with their shoulders up, and one bearing a broom worn to the stump, the other a broken shovel, and both ready to go to work at a moment's notice for the smallest consideration...the crossing-sweeper runs on before you with his broom, gives half-a-dozen strokes, then takes off his hat...and looks as if he would have you believe that he had given the road an extra "brush" solely that you might step clean and spotless across it...What transformations snow undergoes in London: from white it changes to a kind of coarse, brown, dirty-looking sugar; then it gets trampled into cold wet cakes, clinging to your feet at every step...then it sinks into dirty slush...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.